Dark night of the soul

The endurance of darkness is preparation for great light – 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross

Dark night of the soul is a process in which your soul expands. In order to do this, your current ego goes through a death and rebirth cycle. Therefore, your old ego and psyche which you have formed your personality and identity upon, disintegrates. It’s a process that can be extremely painful and leave you in despair, as everything you once believed, who you thought you were, the structures of your thought patterns, completely die – and the purpose of this, is to get you closer to who you actually are, in your purest form. This process enables us, to let go of concepts that block us from who we truly are. We come to the knowing that our past ways, did not serve us – our repetitive patterns built on fear, only kept us looped in our own mental trap, not allowing us to be authentic to who we are and what we want from life. Some refer to it as a spiritual depression. Others may say that it’s a journey towards divine unification which germinates in the shadow of our essence, our soul. We grow into the person that we know is true – when all negative beliefs, our identity we put upon ourselves and by others and our ego is peeled away.

The dark night of the soul is a transitional period. We have no other option than to surrender, to give up control and be receptive to what our pain is showing us, rather than trying to suppress and resist it. Pain and triggers are gifts. They are beneficial, as they enable us to recognise, those things that do not serve our highest good, like destructive thought patterns or self-sabotaging beliefs. As it’s a time of transition, this means that we’re in a state of letting go of who we believed we were but not yet emerging into our newest state of spiritual evolution – in-between worlds – the old and new ego. We’re in a place of darkness and what comes next, is unknown and this not knowing can bring about a sense of feeling “lower than low”, not being able to function in the usual way, such as getting out of bed, disrupted sleep patterns and experiencing the feeling of having no energy. It’s usual for one to not understand or see what the purpose of life is, regarding it as meaningless, not knowing what to do with one’s life and feeling completely disconnected from everything around them – people the universe, source as a whole. You may feel as if you have no idea what you want in life and things you liked before you no longer have any desire for. You don’t know who you are anymore. Everything seems like a struggle and you can feel completely lost and isolated.

Life hasn’t lost its meaning or purpose. The meaning that your “old ego” stamped onto your life, is in fact what’s dying. Life only becomes meaningless, as a result of the structure of the mind – which is shifting in this process – that built your identity. The process of “ego death” and loss of identity is painful.

We have been indoctrinated to believe that to find happiness, it is obtained outside of us; existing in our external world but the truth is, that our journey towards happiness, needs to start from within. We have to live internally, to gain this sense of peace and harmony and to do this, we need to remove the negative and replace it with a positive through mental alchemy, that can be achieved quickly through inner child therapy. Our external world is merely a hologram of what is happening internally. Therefore, to shift your reality, you need to be aligned mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Seeking things that are outside of us, for a sense of peace and fulfilment, will not erase pain or emptiness. Fulfilment cannot be found through achievement or acquisition.

St. John of the Cross and his mentor, Theresa of Ávila, believed that all humans, have an inborn longing for completion. You may go through life and reach milestones, that you thought would make you happy, like getting a promotion or a fast car, money, status or fame, relationships and romantic love affairs but the emptiness is palpable. This is because in order to achieve wholeness, we need to get to the core of who we are, our soul’s essence and this is achieved by being connected and in union with source, the divine, the unmanifest or god. The divine, is in everything around us, therefore, if we have disconnected from the world, this is why “life” is painful as fundamentally, we cannot exist without it so instead of being resistant to it, we need to find out why we are so distrusting of it. By going to the cause, we can then unravel all the thought patterns and beliefs that have been built upon it. Both John and Theresa, believed that this process of dissolving our ego, requires a transformation, that transpires in the darkness of our unconscious, to reach the light. “The purest suffering bears and carries in its train the purest understanding” – St. John of the Cross

Although the term “dark night of the soul”, has it’s background or rooting in Christianity, it is not a process that is only undergone by followers of that religion. This spiritual manifestation, propelling us towards who we really are, happens for all. Dark night of the soul is described by many, as a spiritual depression, existential crisis and state of spiritual detoxification, in order to transform and transcend. With people experiencing a spiritual awakening, it’s very common for them, to go through the dark night of the soul. A spiritual awakening, is essentially an activation or acceleration to higher evolution.

John and Theresa felt, that the dark night of the soul, was the unconscious movement towards the very thing that our soul wants the most – love – as above all else, we have a deep desire to love. This state of love is achieved through union between us and everything else – the unmanifest, god, source, the divine which exists in everything and everyone. Therefore, the pursuit to happiness, in fact is to become whole within ourselves, to truly then be “one” with all and that is when fulfilment occurs.

In this state of darkness, is the best time to identify and clear negative imprints on your psyche; the unconscious wounds that have developed. Once you’ve identified these, you can then change the root cause. When the root of the issue is addressed, all the symptoms fall away. How can you “change” the past from a negative and transmute it to a positive? Time doesn’t exist. You may have heard “spiritual people” say this but this concept is now being supported by scientists. Time is fundamentally an illusion, created by our limited perception of our reality. Everything in the “past” or ever will happen in the “future”, is happening simultaneously right “now”. This means that the past and future currently exist in different realities – alternate timelines. When you tap into an alternate timeline through inner child therapy, you have the power to change your whole reality now. This transmutation of negativity, is cultivated by mental alchemy which is an important aspect of universal law.

Dark night of the soul, is initiated by your soul, meaning, that it’s a process that it wanted to go through. It is cocreated between your soul and the universe so it’s a soul level decision, on how long the process will take but knowing that it is directed by your soul, should give some comfort, in understanding that this process is for your highest good and that you are resilient enough to go through it, albeit painful and confusing at times. The best thing to do, is surrender to the process and listen, listen to your soul, listen to your heart, feel the pain, identify where it is coming from and transmute it which can be achieved through both inner child therapy and emotional freedom technique. Surrender to your soul’s will, let go of control, in needing to know everything that’s happening and what is going on. Soon the darkness will clear and you will emerge like the dragonfly.

If you’ve been yearning and longing for a different life, another way of doing things, thinking, behaving, feeling – wanting to understand why you’re here and who you are, then that’s why your soul attracted this transitional period to you. It’s a gift. It is clearing the path, for you to see and feel where you are meant to be and who you are at the core. Once all the barriers and facades have fallen, that’s when you can manifest the life you desire – because before dark night of the soul, you just weren’t quite ready for it – things needed to change – in order for you to allow things into your life.

If a person is battling with dark night of the soul and it feels like too much, we can facilitate a form of shamanic healing for the mind to accelerate the process of finding closure. We can do this through the safeguarded technique developed by Dolores Cannon, called Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique. This technique is actually designed for past life regression and healing. It is particularly useful, in bringing a person out of trauma or loss.

For more information, please email: info@niroshini.com